Victory + Princess= Amazing!

Monday: Match day vs. Bahrain... We had breakfast an hour earlier today down in the lobby and at the end, Asma looks at me and says "You have your bags packed right? We check out today." I look at her with a blank stare and I nod my head with my eyes wide open in surprise. Once again..last minute. But gotta love it. So I go up and pack pretty quick because we are checking out so we can go to a hotel closer to the gym. We will now play at Sharjah Ladies Club, which is the main site for the tournament where Basketball is also played. I was kind of bummed to have to leave the Centro Hotel, it was starting to feel comfortable and of course it is really really nice. So we packed up in Houria's car and headed to Sharjah Ladies Club for our match.

While we were in the car I remembered a few things that shocked me about their driving habits:


1. They don't wear seat belts! Fatma, one of my teammates, even buckles her seatbelt in permanently and sits on her seatbelt so her car doesn't beep at her.
2. More on the seatbelt thing...if they don't buckle their seat belts, the car beeps every 2 minutes, and don't do anything about it! So we will be driving and it'll beep the whole time..how does that not irritate them??
3. They have no hesitation when it comes to honking at people.. they honk just to honk I think.
4. They use their brights for different reasons than us..we use ours to let's say see better... they use their brights to signal to people they are on their butt..like if they are in a lane and someone is going "too slow" they go right on them and flash their brights...how rude! :) But I just laugh because it is frankly very funny to witness.

Gotta make friends with the police women at the match!

Well...after huge anticipation we beat Bahrain 3-0, they were actually the best team we have played but we really played as a team today and really well! We got 1st in the pool..yay! I stayed to watch the Kuwait match to prepare for Wednesday, because we play them in the crossover match. Meanwhile, I got invited to lunch with the coaches at the restaurant at the club and got to take in the beautiful scenery there. I would compare it to a country club, except only ladies are allowed. I ended up sitting with a few younger girls who are 16,15 and 14. They sit on our bench and wear our uniforms so they can learn about the team and be involved to see what it is like to play volleyball for Ajman Club. They are so precious and have REALLY good english. So we enjoyed lunch talking about their hobbies, school, boys and they asked me many questions about the USA. It was fun to be able to talk to them and made me realize that across the globe all teenagers are exactly the same..so awesome :) 

The view from our restaurant at the Sharjah Ladies Club

After lunch we all walked back over to the match and it was actually just about to finish, but another match was starting (Sharjah vs. Palestine). I decided to stay with the coaches again and we sat in these big red comfy chairs that were just for the higher up people in society (I assumed). I was definitely right about that because as I crossed my legs when I sat down she whispered to me, "don't do that..we are in front of a princess." I looked at her like what?! And she said "yes, right there." And 2 people down from me was the princess of Dubai. She came over to talk to my coaches and then they introduced me to her! She spoke perfect English and we talked for about 20 minutes about UAE and USA. She was a very interesting woman and actually took my email address and phone number because she wants to "teach me more about their culture and the Arabic language." I was honored!

Shamsa, the Princess of Dubai :)

So back to real life...Remember when I said we had to check out of our awesome hotel? Well we headed towards the new hotel, which I was expecting to be pretty nice, but me, Asma, Fatma and Sam came up to the hotel, went to our room and once the lights started flickering amongst the darkness we decided this would not be a good place to stay. So apparently all you have to do is call Kaptin Amina and she gets right on it! We checked out in 30 minutes and drove to a new hotel which was much better. They are hotel apartments, so I am in an apartment with 2 other girls but I have my own room. The hotel is pretty old school and does not have wi-fi just "wired" internet as they say. So I have to have the internet plugged into my computer..I know I am a poor thing. But it's been fun to all be together! I am going to miss this place and especially the wonderful people.